Yuki no Shugosha (雪の守護者)
by Daanny
Summary: In a parallel world, a girl comes to meet Tsuna. She seems to be deeply involved with the Vongola. And what's with her involvement with Vongola First! Anyways, I suck at summaries so please forgive me if this is really bad. Rated T for language. No pairings as of now, maybe hints of pairings. *cough cough* Tsuna x OC later in story
1. Where it all started

Hey guys~~  
This is my first fanfic and no one beta'ed it so please forgive me for my grammar and spelling mistakes.  
All character and rights go to Amano Akira. I only own my ideas.  
What can I say... ENJOY~~~~

* * *

I (おれ) stood on my airboard way up in the sky enjoying the wind whipping at my face. In a way it was suiting. The sky that holds and accepts all, huh? I thought, and smiled. Vongola X has been selected by Iemitsu and the Ninth already. As the Yuki no Shugosha, (Guardian of Snow) my job was to watch over the training of a newly chosen Vongola Boss Candidate.

The kid that is to become the new Vongola Boss seemed to be an interesting one. Sawada Tsunayoshi. I took out a picture from my black and silver duffel bag. It was the only picture that I have of him. Brown spiky hair, really big eyes. He seriously reminded me of Giot. They look almost like copies of each other. The only difference was the hair colour. Brown vs blonde. And according to my information on the boy. His classmates call him "No-Good Tsuna" as he wasn't good at anything. Honestly, I hate people like that. "You can't do anything!" and "You're soo stupid!" Just... so stupid and such a waste of time. I mean, if you've got time like that, go watch a few episodes of anime! Sigh.

My GPS built into my silver locket hanging from my belt beeped. Apparently in about five minutes I would enter town area. It's a good idea to land and go to my destination on wheels. I prodded a button on my board with my foot to start descending. And OH CRAP. I feel so smart for pressing the wrong button, instead of a slow descend that I deserved, the built-in engines puttered to a stop instantly. And guess what happens now? Down comes the airboard~ Down comes ME! I crashed to the ground from a height that would've killed a normal person, but since it's me, it's OK~

Owww. I think I dislocated my left arm. Grimacing, I grabbed the dislocated arm and popped it back in. Yosh! I got ready to stand up when I saw a hand in front of my face. Looking up, I found the reason that I was here in Namimori at all.

"Um, are you OK?" Tsu-chi asked. He's a pretty cute kid. I took his hand and he pulled me up. I roughly dusted myself.

"Yeah I'm fine," I was about to do a self introduction when I saw Re-chi perched on Tsu-chi's shoulder. "Yo! 'Sup Re-chi! Haven't seen you in a while! And you too, Le-chi!"

"That was a really bad landing," Re-chi replied in that kiddy (well I suppose he is a kid, but still) voice of his. "You've gotten worse."

"Hit the wrong button." I said vaguely, picking up my airboard, now in skateboard form. No cracks, I thought after a through check. It's all good.

"Ano!" Tsu-chi said, drawing attention to himself while I rotated my shoulder/arm socket around to see if it was working properly. "Who are you? And more importantly, do you need to go to the hospital?"

"Yeah, that's right!" Go-chi jumped in front of Tsu-chi. "What do you want from Juudaime?"

"No way, budday!" I said, ignoring Go-chi. I would've been surprised that Tsu-chi would ask such a question if Re-chi hadn't told me in his most recent letter that Tsu-chi still wasn't really comfortable about all this Mafia stuff. "I'm perfectly fine and you should take my word for that. And Go-chi (Go-chi yelled something like 'Go-chi?' but I ignored him), shut up will you? I know you're Tsu-chi's (Tsu-chi looked at me weirdly here, but that's how I talk so shut up) right hand man and blah blah blah. But seriously, Tsu-chi and I need to have a talk, preferably soon."

"Stay back Juudaime! Let me handle this." Go-chi pushed Tsu-chi further back and took out a buncha dynamites. I smirked/ side-twitched. He hadn't been listening to me at all, had he? People these day were really stubborn. But again, I s'ppose I shouldn't be complaining.

"It's OK, Gokudera. She's not our enemy." Thank you, Re-chi! I didn't feel like fighting right at that moment. "It's time, isn't it?" The last question was directly at me.

"Yes." A simple word would do.

"Tsuna! You go ahead and tell Mama that we have a visitor coming. Ask her to prepare a room for our visitor. Gokudera can go with you." Re-chi ended the command with a kick in the back of Tsu-chi's head, causing him to stumble.

"I got it Reborn!" Tsu-chi complained. "You don't need to kick me!" I quickly searched his mind for any doubts. I found none about me, although he was complaining that Re-chi always send him for the hard trips.

"So, Re-chi, what do you think of him?" I asked when those two were out of earshot.

"He's too soft." Re-chi answered immediately. "And he's too unsure of himself."

"Well, that can be fixed, can't it?" I said, shouldering my duffel bag and my airboard.

"We'll see." Re-chi answered. "You're still the same, aren't you?" He added after a quick pause. I looked at him suspiciously at that.

"What do you mean?"

"Still so stubborn; voice still contains sarcasm; still doesn't use your name in introductions."

"I never did any introductions today."

"I saw your hesitation at the beginning. Still so green."

"If I'm still green then I don't know about you."

"So you received the letter?" Re-chi changed the subject.

"Yeah, why else would I be here?" I blew my turquoise hair out of face.

"Setting that aside, if you're here then the-"

"Rings will be arriving soon. Yes" I cut him off and answered him in one sentence.

"I see." Re-chi said.

"Is Iemitsu back yet?" I asked, curiously.

"Not yet"

I nodded thoughtfully. Not. Back. Yet. Hmm.

"We're here." Re-chi said, and jumped to ring the doorbell. A woman's voice floated toward us.

"Tsu-kun! Could you get that for me? I'm busy with our visitor's room right now!"

"Haai!" Tsu-chi's voice called back. A second later, some kind of crashing sound came towards me. I could only deduce that Tsu-chi, the clumsy Vongola Boss Candidate, fell down the stairs like an idiot. And sure enough, when Tsu-chi opened the door, he was rubbing his side and Go-chi was running down the stairs, yelling, "Are you alright? Juudaime?"

Tsu-chi turned back and said, "I'm fine, Gokudera-kun." Then he turned back to us and said, "Eto, please come in." Re-chi had already invited himself in and was heading towards the kitchen/dining room. Iemitsu had given me the floorplan of the house along with the letter that Re-chi had written me on the conditions of Tsu-chi. Heh, makes me feel like a stalker. XD

"Ojamashimasu!" I said as I stepped over the threshold. I looked around, the house pretty much spelled out "warm, loving family".

"Lambo! Don't hog all the snacks!" a little girls voice drifted from the room that Re-chi had just disappeared into. If my memory served me right, her name is I-Pin. She's Chinese, by the way, just like me. Although she probably looks way more Chinese than me. What with my dark turquoise hair, yellow eye, (notice how I said eye, not plural cuz I've got an eyepatch over the other eye. And of course, my bangs, in turn, covers the eyepatch completely) abnormal height, (175, I'm only 14!... technically) and pale pale skin, I don't look Asian, even.

"Hahaha! Allll of these are Lambo-san's!" Lambo yelled back.

I poked my head into the dining room as Tsu-chi's mother: Sawada Nana said, "Lambo, it's OK, I made lots of snacks today to welcome our guest!"

"Konnichiwa!" I cut in before Lambo could start complaining, not that I thought he would start complaining, but because I didn't want to stand there like a loner anymore.

"Oh! Are you the visitor that Tsu-kun was telling me about? He said that you're Reborn-chan's friend." Tsu-chi's mother said, smiling.

"Yes! I'm also Iemitsu's co-worker!" I answered. Most people would be surprised at that since I'm only fourteen. But since it's Nana, it's OK.

"I see! Tsu-kun, show her to her room, alright?" Nana directed the last bit at Tsu-chi.

"If at all possible, could you leave Tsu-chi and I alone for a while?" I asked. Time to get down to business. "We need to talk about something."

"Oh! Is it homework?" Nana asked curiously. If you're wondering why I'm calling her by her first name... She's definitely not older than me. I'll explain someday...

"Yes, since Tsu-chi doesn't understand the stuff in class, I'm here to tutor him. I'll probably be staying for a while, which is also why Re-chi told Tsu-chi to ask you to prepare a room for me." I said with a bright smile that I only use for other people's parents. Usually my voice is way lower that people frequently mistaken me as a guy. Only when I had short hair though. No normal guy would have hair almost reaching their ankles.

"I see." Nana said brightly. "I'll bring some snacks up later."

"Thank you!" I replied, in an equally bright voice. God, I hated it when I start using that voice. "Well then, see you later!" I turned and Re-chi jumped on top of my shoulder. I shifted my airboard that I was still holding slightly.

"Ano, your room is this way." Tsu-chi's hesitant voice made its way towards me. That's something we'll have to fix. Can't have a Vongola Boss sounding that hesitant.

"Yep, I'm coming." My voice instantly turned lower. Much better.

"You're making Juudaime serve you, you idiot." Go-chi's stupid voice cut in as Tsu-chi opened the door for me.

"Ano, I'll leave you here." Tsu-chi said.

I threw my duffel bag into the room and carefully set my airboard down on the bed. "No need, Tsu-chi, we have an overdue talk. Go-chi is not invited."

"I'm Juudaime's right hand man! Where Juudaime goes, I go." Go-chi instantly protested.

"She's right, Gokudera." Re-chi said. "You don't need to hear this conversation. See you later."

"He means that you're dismissed." I pointed out after a few seconds of silence.

"Well, if Reborn-san says so..." Go-chi said. He's still really suspicious of me... I thought. "Juudaime! Take care of yourself."

"Mn! See you tomorrow, Gokudera-kun." Tsu-chi said and waved as Go-chi left. I pushed him into my room. It was painted a light blue, with green furniture. I liked it. I shut the door behind me and sat down on a puffy chair. Tsu-chi seated himself on a stool in front of the work table. Re-chi, of course, sat on the table beside Tsu-chi.

"Eto, so who are you?" Tsu-chi asked. "And what business do you have with me?"

I put a finger in front of my lips in a "be quiet" gesture. Tsu-chi blinked a few times. A knock came a few seconds later. "Come on in!" I called. The door opened, revealing Fuuta with a tray of snacks and juice that I accepted.

"Thanks, Fuuta!" I smiled. He's so cute. He's like an oversized teddy bear. I put the tray down and couldn't help myself giving him a hug. He looked pretty stunned.

"Um, how do you know my name?" Fuuta asked, confused.

"How can I not know your name, you cutie pie." I let him go after a while. "Thanks for the food."

"What's your name?" Fuuta asked. CRAP! How could I forget about this?!

"Now that he says it. What is your name?" Tsu-chi joined in.

"Err," I said while my brain whirled to find a fake name for myself. "Sora." I decided. "My name is Sora."


	2. Introductions

"Sora-san, huh?" Fuuta said, trying out my name. " Isn't that a boy's name?"

"Yeah, but oh well." I said like I was really used to that question. Technically, I was. Emphasis on was. Like, um, maybe a thousand years ago?

"Can I call you Sora-nee?"

"Of course, Fuuta." I said. "Now, why don't you go and play with Lambo and I-Pin? I'm sure they're missing you by now." As soon I finished those words, Nana's voice, or Mama, as I guess I should call her now, drifted from downstairs asking Fuuta if he wanted to go shopping with her. Perfect timing, Mama!

"See you later! Tsuna-nii, Sora-nee!" Fuuta ran back downstairs. I usually hated little kids, but some kids, like Fuuta, are just too cute to be hated.

I shut the door again, and locked it too, for good measure. Turning back to Tsu-chi, and said, "Now, Tsu-chi, I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me. But to answer one of them, yes, I am a part of the Mafia. Feel free to ask me anything else you might be wondering about."

"Eto, I know I asked this before, but who are you? And why are you here?" Tsu-chi said immediately.

"Most of this will be extremely hard to explain until a few days later, but to answer your questions as best as I can. My real name is Yuki. Sora is the name I use with people that don't know my identity. My job is to look over the Vongola Boss Candidates' training." I stopped as a look of "this Mafia stuff again?" was put on by Tsu-chi.

I sighed and continued. "I know you don't want to get involved with the Mafia, but the thing is, Tsu-chi, if you don't do anything about this 'Mafia stuff' that you hate so much, your classmates and your family will get involved for you. I know that Fuuta, Takeshi, Gokudera, Kyoya, and Bianchi were all involvedin the Kokuyo fight. If you don't do anything, people will start coming after people connected to you that don't have any power to protect themselves to get to you." I paused to let what I just said sink in and for Tsu-chi to think of more questions.

Tsu-chi was quiet for a while. Gee, I wonder what's going on in that head of his? No, serious. I'm not being sarcastic. I could find out what he's thinking... But I'm too lazy. So meh. "Yosh," I drawled. "You should know that many people will come after you cuz you're the Vongola Boss. Some will be just that much stronger than you and kick your ass real bad, but guess what, that why I'm here."

Tsu-chi's thoughts were easy to hear: _Is that supposed to make feel better? I'd rather stay Dame-Tsuna the rest of my life. _Not like I was trying! His voice is actually pretty loud, it's kinda hard to ignore.

"You could try..." I said monotonously. "But if Re-chi's here then I doubt yeh matey will be able to stay a 'Dame-Tsuna' the rest of yer life." Banzai for pirate accent~

"Yuki's right. I will train you into Vongola Juudaime. Even if I have to beat it into you." Re-chi added. Tsu-chi was forced against the wall, torn between fear of Re-chi's promise and my "repeating what he thought". I was trying not to laugh at Tsu-chi's face. "Yuki?" Re-chi turned towards me and  
continued. "Tell Tsuna about your life. Maybe that'll make him feel a bit more comfortable. Also, you need to tell your boss about you so he can trust you as one of his people."

I blinked. Oh... God...

"Ano, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Tsu-chi cut in. "I don't really want to know anyways. And I don't want to be a Mafia Boss."

I looked at the floor for a second. Then shook my head and made up my mind. "I'll just tell you what you have to know, OK?"

"No really, it's alright." Tsu-chi said, waving his hands in front of him.

Ignoring his comment, I started. "I was, or should I say will be, born two hundred thousands years into the future." I kept on ignoring Tsu-chi's now astonished face and waved aside the questions I could sense that were coming.

"Time travel machines were well-developed by then. My parents, or should I say, my adopted parents were both in the time travel industry. By that time, time travel was as common as walking to school these days. And, well, the people that adopted me pretty much stopped caring for me by the time I was seven cuz I got blind and stuff. They only sent money home every month and never came back. I had to do all the robotic maintainance since we lived many miles away from everyone else. But they left many time travel machines in the house.

"I played with the older version time machines until I was thirteen for fun and to gather information on the times I sent myself to. On the day I turned fourteen, I sent myself a thousand years before this, all dressed in tunics and stuff and blended in as a boy in Sparta. Cuz, you know, they valued guys over girls at the time. I put an illusion on myself so that I wouldn't look like an alien.

"When I got there though, the time machine's counter-part that allowed me to return went and got itself burnt up even though it should've been fire-proof. I mean like, WHAT THE HELL! Sao I lived in Greece for a while, switching identities every other decade or so cuz like people died so easily those days."

"Way after that I moved to Italy. Don't ask me how I survived 'til then cuz it's a mystery even to me. Anyways, I met the idiot who was to become Vongola I. We became friends. After a while he asked me to become one of his Guardians. I refused at the time. But his other Guardians convinced me after a while. So yeah, that's why I'm here."

Tsu-chi was looking at me as if I was a hologram or something. I snorted quietly. He's one of a kind to be selected as a Vongola Boss. For many of the previous bosses, I was too lazy to even explain any of this crap to them. Mostly I just blended in as a Mafia underdog to check their improvements. And if I ever did, they'd probably laugh in my face and kick me out. Not that I've ever tried that, so well... I suppose I don't know.

"If you've been living for a thousand years, how are you still alive?" Tsu-chi finally asked.

I shrugged like I didn't know. "Saa~" I was rewarded with an uncomfortable look. You'll know... Someday...

"So you come from the future?"

"No duh, if you didn't get that much from my short autobiography, you're in trouble. The kind of trouble where your mental health is in question." I clapped my hands together. "OK, buddy, no more questions, I'm tired. Oh yeah, I heard you got your math quiz back today, so what did you get on it, huh?"

Tsu-chi's face instantly went red and he started staring at the floor. I reached inside his mind: _Should I tell her? What if she's like Reborn and hurts me when she hears that I only got seventeen percent on the quiz? It's so embarrassing telling someone you barely know about your bad grade. Ahhh. [Inner hair scratch/mess up]_

_Haha, seventeen percent, huh? Faiiiil._ "It's OK, Tsu-chi, it's OK if you didn't get that good of a mark, I'll tutor you tonight. And I don't bomb or throw grenades at you if you get a question wrong." I snickered slightly at Tsu-chi's relieved face.

"Ano, sono... Thank you for coming all the way here. And are you sure your arm is alright?" Tsu-chi asked cautiously.

I gave him my "are you kidding me?" stare. "Yes, Tsu-chi, I'm fine."


	3. School, Need I say more?

I stretched when I woke up to a knock on my door. "Come in!" I called by habit. Oops, a little mistake there. "Wait! Don't come in!" I corrected myself quickly before the door was open. I don't have to explain why, right?

"Hurry up, Sora-nee! Breakfast is about to start! If you don't come quickly, Lambo's gonna eat it all!" Fuuta's high voice sounded slightly muffled by the door.

"Tell Mama I'm coming!" I called back and flipped through my dresser. I'd unpacked last night after I tutored Tsu-chi about today's lessons. Hopefully he'll be better than when we started. He was, shall we say, pretty bad. I grabbed my airboard and a messenger bag with school supplies. Hmm, haven't went to school in a long time, and never in this era. I'd packed a few pens and mechanical pencils, and a few notebooks brought last night at 12 on Tsu-chi's prompt. That should be enough... I also have money for textbooks, workbooks and my uniform. Slinging my bag on with one hand while picking up my airboard with the other, I got ready to head downstairs.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Mama," I said casually as I headed into the kitchen.

"Ohayo, Sora-chan," replied Mama, smiling widely as she fried eggs. (We told everyone my fake name yesterday) "Your breakfast is on the table."

"Thanks." I pulled out the chair and sat down, covering a yawn with my hand.

"Ciaosu!" Re-chi said. How can be that energetic this early in the morning? I'm like half-dead already. It's a good thing I didn't stay up the whole night like I usually do.

"Ciao-" I broke off yawning again. "Su." Tsu-chi was sitting at the end of the table. "Good day, Tsu-chi."

"Good morning, Sora." Tsu-chi answered. "Which class are you going to be in?"

"Your class," I gave him my "duh" look. " What else?"

"Well, the principal decides it, so..."

"Screw the principal, he'll buck under one of my threats." I shrugged and started to pick at my eggs. There were also bacon strips. "Lambo, do you want my bacon?" Lambo held out his plate in answer as he was still chewing. I dished all the meat stuff on his plate. After all, I already told Na-, wait, no, Mama that I'm a vegetarian.

After tutoring Tsu-chi and shopping 'til twelve last night, I started writing my song that I started a few days ago but had to abandon for my trip here. I didn't sleep til like four in the morning. And it's only 7 right now. And Tsu-chi's rushing to eat breakfast, saying that he'll be late for breakfast. I didn't have the energy to eat so I kept at staring at my meal for a few more seconds.

"Lambo. You can have all of this." I pushed my plate across the table.

"Yah! All of this is Lambo-san's!" he said happily.

"Lambo, share it with I-Pin or whoever that wants extras, OK?" I said tiredly.

Lambo turned the deaf ear on me.

"Gochisosama." I said and grabbed my bag and board. Heading out the door, I added, "Tsu-chi, hurry up. You're gonna be late." The guy was still in his pajamas. Seriously. "Bye~"

* * *

"You're going to be in class 2-1," the principal said, annoyed to the extreme. I was fiddling with my MP3 player until now. The class thing got my attention.

"Is Sawada Tsunayoshi in that class?" I asked.

"No."

I grabbed the front of his collar as a threat. "Then put me in Sawada's class, idiot." I released him cuz he was turning blue in the face real fast. Can't have him dying on me, can I?

"I'll put you in his class!" he blurted out. Pathetic, but I reached my goal, so why complain?

* * *

The teacher entered the classroom, leaving me alone in the hallway. I could hear him saying something along the lines of "we have a transfer student, please welcome her", blah blah blah. "You can come in now." When that line reached my ear, I opened the door and walked in, sliding the door shut neatly behind me. I nodded to the students at the front of the classroom. Go-chi still had that suspicious look on and Tsu-chi, well. He was thinking something like She actually got in my class. What did she do to get her way? kind of thing.

The teacher looked at me as if he was expecting me to do something. "Write your name on the board, Sawada." All that the teachers know about me is that I'm a distant relative of Tsu-chi's studying abroad.

"No thank you," I replied sweetly. One of my hobbies is making trouble for adults. It's actually really fun, especially after you've been doing it for a many-a-years and pretty much know how your victims are gonna respond. No surprise, my "sensei"'s face was heating up already.

"Go find a desk and sit down," he commanded. The class was peering at our interchange interestedly. I turned and started strolling to the back of the classroom.

As I passed Go-chi's desk, he stood up and grabbed the front of my shirt. Uh, scratch that, I allowed him to grab the front of my shirt. If he was an enemy, he'd be down on the ground with enough injuries to last him a lifetime already. "If you try to do anything funny to Juudaime, I'll-"

"Gokudera-kun! Calm down!" Tsu-chi came "rushing to my rescue". More like "torn between the 'fear of Go-chi' and me dying". Then Ta-chi joined the game.

"Ma, ma, Gokudera, it's alright, isn't it?" Ta-chi said. Go-chi tched and released me. "You're the person that Tsuna was telling me about this morning, aren't you? I'm Yamamoto Takeshi, nice to meet you."

I smiled. The requiem rain that washes away all conflicts. "Nice to meet you too, Ta-chi. I'm Sora." He'll get the "lecture" along with the other Guardians. He seemed a bit surprised that I was calling him my way, but didn't say anything.

"How long are you guys going to stand around?" the teacher demanded. "Go back to your desks."

I turned back towards the front of the classroom, giving the teacher my cold stare. "Shut up for a second, idiot, we're 'going back to our desks'." I said the last bit in an extremely high voice in an "imitation" of the teacher, who went red in the face. The rest of the class snickered. Flicking my hair back, (I can't believe I actually did that) I walked to the empty desk besides Tsu-chi (who had already sat down, at the teacher's prompt) and sat down. My bag went on the hook on the side of the desk.

The teacher started going on about how to say "I've got a pencil" in English. Honestly! Are you seriously kidding me?! They let a guy like that teach English? Take bad pronunciation, times a thousand, bad grammar, (seriously, who says 'I've got a pencil' these days?) times a hundred, and strong accent, (Oh, my Goddo) times a hundred thousand, and you pretty much get his awesomeness at English. To the right of me, Tsu-chi had a total "What the crap is going on?" look.

I considered my options: No. 1, go to sleep and regain my energy. No. 2, tutor Tsu-chi via telepathy. No. 3, take over the damned class and teach the students good grammar. No. 4, ditch class and go to the rooftop to sleep. I was seriously considering option No. 4 when the teacher called on me.

"Sawada," Tsu-chi looked up with a holy crap face. "Not that Sawada, the one beside you." I looked up as Tsu-chi sighed a relieved sigh.

"What?"

"Translate the sentence on the board to English."

I quickly scanned the board. It said something like "the grass is green" in Japanese. I looked at the teacher sincerely while smiling innocently and said, "You're an idiot," in perfect English with the bonus of no accent.

"Wrong," the teacher said gleefully. I burst out laughing as the teacher then realized what I'd said to his face. The people in the class that understood me smirked.

_What did she say?_ Tsu-chi was wondering. I sent my thoughts to him._ I just told him that he's an idiot._ (In Japanese translation, of course)

_Don't enter my head like that! Yuki!_

_Sorry, sorry. _*laughs*_ Mk, Tsu-chi, I'm gonna tutor you like this so even if the teacher picks on you, you'll know the answer, alright?_

_Um, yeah, thanks._

So we spent the day ignoring the class and doing some "self-studying". And on the rare occasion that Tsu-chi did get called on, he was able to save a bit of his dignity. After school at home, I taught Ta-chi and Tsu-chi how to do the questions they were assigned for failing yet another test and previewed the materials that were going to be taught next week. Go-chi still shot random suspicious glances at me. At first, he completely refused my offer to teach Tsu-chi and Ta-chi while saying that he's the only one fit to teach the Juudaime as he's Tsu-chi's "right hand man". He stopped with that since Re-chi told him that I was one the best teachers in all of Mafia, which I disagreed by saying that Lal Mirch was better. They all stayed for dinner and crowded the little dining/living room.

When everyone left and the others started getting ready for bed, I went in my room, shutting the door behind me. I stretched and spotted my keyboard. The electric piano that I'd ordered last month had arrived today, and I'd set it up with enthusiasm. I brushed my fingers over the clean, white keys and played the new song that I'd finished composing during lunch. Instead of setting up the speaker, which would wake everyone up since I only played the instrument at night, I'd stuck a pair of headphones in the "headphone" port. The song sounded pretty much alright except for a few spots here and there. I pulled down my headphones and was about to get a pencil and eraser when I heard a knock on the door.

I walked over quietly and pulled open the door. Tsu-chi was standing there with a bump on his head. From Re-chi, no doubt.

"Yes?"

"Ano, sono, I just wanted to say- Thank you." he said, scratching his cheek with a finger awkwardly.

I tilted my head and did kind of a hand wave in front of me. "No, no. I'm the one that should say thank you. I haven't had this much fun in decades." You try spending a few years unnoticed by anyone, (except for the Arcobalenos, but then they're boring) you'd think that a normal day for anyone was pretty interesting. "Good night, Tsu-chi."

"Good night." Tsu-chi said. I shut the door in his face.

* * *

The next time I checked the clock, the day was beginning to turn bright- nine o'clock. What the hell did I even do the last... How many hours? Screw it. Not going to sleep. Knowing Tsu-chi and his friends, they're going out cuz it's a Saturday. No time to sleep. I changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, completing my usual attire: Messy hair, crumpled shirt, sport shorts, socks and a pair of sneakers.

Ugh. I wobbled my way downstairs. The rest of the crew: Tsu-chi, Re-chi, Mama, Fuuta, Lambo, I-Pin and Bianchi were already there, fighting over the food.

"Good morning, Sora-chan." Mama said with the frying pan in hand. "We're having pancakes today."

Whoa~ Deja Vu. Didn't she say the exact same thing yesterday but without the pancakes? "Morning, Mama." I said and sat down.

"Lambo-san is gonna eat a lot!" Lambo said enthusiastically.

"Lambo! If you eat too much you're going to get a stomachache!" I-Pin frowned.

"Like Lambo-san cares!" I decided their conversation was getting boring and dug into my pancakes dripping with maple syrup.

"Itadakimasu!" I said monotonously. Unceremoniously, I stuffed a piece into my mouth. "These are really good, Mama." No, serious, they were good.

"There's lots more!" She answered happily. I finished the rest of my rather tall stack of pancakes in about five seconds and caught Tsu-chi staring at me.

"Gochisosama. Hurry up, Tsu-chi. Go-chi's about to call you in... Five, four, three, two, one-"

*Ding dong* "Good morning Juudaime!" Go-chi's voice floated in. I gave Tsu-chi a "you see?" look.

"Let's gooo~ Sawada Tsunayoshi~" I said with a bounce in my voice.


	4. Memories

I sipped at my coffee, bored. I suspect Tsu-chi was actually enjoying himself. _Coming here with Kyoko-chan, I'm so happy~_ or something like that... A warmth along with a slight chill crept up my spine. This feeling, I raised an eyebrow. It's Ba-chi! ... and Squalo.

"Tsu-chi, get the weaklings outta here, thanks." aka, the girls.

"What are you—" he was cut off by a sort of explosion from behind.

"Yosh~ This is when I take my leave~ Have fun guys~" I jumped on my airboard and escaped at full speed. RUN AWAYYYYY~~ Not something I usually did but not like I've anything to do there. The best I could do is stand at attention and possibly get myself killed. Not my favorite thing to do. According to my promise thingy to the duude, I wasn't supposed to do anything that would really mess up the future. What can I say, I haven't done that much yet. And I wasn't gonna start now. Too much work, you see.

I hovered over the sea. (UMI-DAAA~~3) ... They should be done having their one-sided-fight against Squalo by now. I wonder if Ba-chi's alright... What am I talking about? There's no way he could be alright after going against Squalo for that long. Sure, they'd do better if I was with them but nah. I'm not supposed to anything as drastic as that. Not too much damage done anyways, it ain't like the Rings that Ba-chi's got now are real. Damn you Iemitsu for deceiving Ba-chi like that.

If I had Sora-kun here then... I'd be able to do something... (Not that I'm supposed to but... MEH :D Do I sound like I care?) Yosh! Where's Sora-kun?! Daichi-kun too! Ummm... Mnnnnn... Etooo... Sono... ARGH! (Inner hair mess up) YOSH! I'M FIRED UP NOW! LET'S DO THIS! *next mission: find Sora-kun and Daichi-kun~~~~ And since I don't know where they are no longer... BACK INTO MY MEMORIES IT IS~~

* * *

"_Yuki!"_

_I opened an eye lazily. "Giot, Co-chi, can't you see I'm busy?"_

"_Yeah, busy sleeping." Co__-chi __snorted._

"_Yep," I mumbled. "So shut up and lemme sleep."_

"_Did you stay up the whole night again, Yuki?" Giot sounded amused._

_I yawned as a reply. "What do you think I'll answer with, idiot? Honestly, when G's not right beside you acting as your brain, I seriously don't think you own a brain yourself." That left him speechless. "God! Loosen up! Find that sarcastic self that has to exist somewhere inside you. When you do, come back to Co-chi and me. We'll we__l__come you with open arms then." I rolled over and curled up. "Now go away and lemme sleep."_

"_You sleep too much, Yuki." Giot scolded from over me._

"_Stop hovering over me like that, idiot. You're not my boyfriend." I said. Co-chi and G from somewhere snickered/laughed lightly. Giot backed up a bit._

"_Yeah, but you won't get up unless I do that."_

"_Yeah, and did I get up even when you did that?" I shot back._

"_Nope, but at least you're awake."_

"_Mn, and that's about to change in a few seconds. Now go away and lemme—" I yawned. "sleep."_

"_Don't you want to see your birthday present?" Giot plead._

"_Nope."_

"_But we spent so long on it..." Giot sounded hurt. "Hey, you guys! Help me convince her!"_

"_Sorry, Giotto. But you're the best one here for dealing with Yuki." Co-chi said. True dat, I only put up with him cuz he's funny when he's trying to get me to do something I don't want to do._

"_I'll get you some good quality chocolate." Giot was trying to butter me up. Like that'll work._

"_From the nearest crappy store, yeah." I snorted. "Don't act like I don't know your tricks, buddy."_

"_But Yu—"_

"_If I take that present from you," I demanded. "Will you leave me alone and let me get some sleep?"_

"_Of course," Co-chi cut in._

_I held out my palm. "Hurry up, Gio. Let's get this over with."_

_He pulled out a simple, kinda screwed up drawstring bag and placed it on my outstretched hand. "We spent a long time on this."_

"_You spent a long time trying to sew a drawstring bag." I said flatly while clapping sarcastically (can clapping be sarcastic?) and shaking my head. (MULTITASKING FOR THE WIN~~) I pulled the bag open and turned it upsidedown. Out fell a large blue snowflake and a smaller version as well. On closer inspection, I found out that the larger version was attached to a string and the smaller version was connected to a blue ring. "Is this aquamarine?" I asked, raising an eyebrow._

"_Yep." Co-chi answered. "Your favo__ur__ite."_

"_Who ever said it was my favourite?" I shot back. "But anyways,__what does it do?"_

"_It's locks up your power when you're not using it."_

"_How?"_

"_You put the ring and the necklace on, then you connect the ring to the place in the necklace it's supposed to go, then poof~ You're done~"_

_I had place the ring on the necklace before Co-chi had even finished. Instantly, I felt the pressure from the extra power that kept on storing up in me go away. I stretched. "Thanks, idiot, Co-chi, G. Now, Imma go to sleep, that is, if y'all don't mind." Without waiting for an __answer__, I slumped back against my tree. The pressure that kept on annoying the crap outta me was gone. I shut my eyes and fell asleep in a matter of seconds._

* * *

"_So, Gio," I said dangerously. "I was told that you had summoned me here?"_

_Giot almost flinched. "Umm... Yeah... Sorry... More like I asked you to please come here..."_

"_Better." I nodded curtly. "And, sure, why not~ I'll be your Guardian no prob."_

_Giot walked out from behind his desk. He looked really surprised but relieved. "Thanks, Yuki. I love you for this. No one wanted the freakin job__, not that anyone would be fit for it except for you__.." He breathed out like he'd been holding his breath for... a while...?_

"_Yeah, yeah, whatevs. Anything else...?" I made a motion to turn and leave._

"_Yeah, Yuki." He produced a clocket and a ring from one of his many pockets. "Your pocketwatch and your Vongola Ring."_

_I took them from his hand and inspected them carefully. The pocketwatch, or clocket (locket x clock, usually for those dangling clock thingys, but this is awesome enough to deserve that title), as I preferred to call it, was no unfamiliarity to me. I had seen them multiple times with the other Guardians. The only difference was that the outside cover was silver instead of gold. Which is good. I loved silver. Flicking the cover up out of curiosity, I found, to no surprise, that the middle was lit up with a silver dying will fire. I shut it with a click and pocketed that without a second word._

_The Vongola Ring, however, was a complete different matter. It looked like a lump of silver from somewhere~ over the rainbow~ NOT. Gio was gonna have fun convincing me to take this. "What," I demanded. "The freakin hell is this?"_

"_It's... Your Vongola Ring." Giot said in a __timid__ voice. It seems like he expected this reaction from me._

"_So why the heck." I continued. "Did you have to make it so damned ugly?"_

"_Well..." He scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Since Cozar__t __isn't here..."_

_He didn't finish his sentence. He didn't need to. "And G ain't here either. So you're missing your hands and your brain right now. No wonder you're acting so idiotic." Then, seeing Gio's messed up face. I sighed and said, "Chill, man, chill. I just have to wear this, right? Mk~ I'm going then~" I yawned. "And gonna get some sleep." I left Giot and went back, yawning._

* * *

_I ran as fast as my legs could possibly carry me. My airboard was still hopelessly damaged from my last mini- "mission". (Err... nope, I wasn't ditching work... What are you talking about?) But anyways, even without my airboard, I was still pretty fast after days without rest. I mean, like, if you got a note that looked something like this:_

Miss Yuki,  
Vongola Primo is in a dire situation. You are the only one that has the ability to save him now.  
PS: Things may not be the same next time you see him.

_then you'd be in a pretty big hurry too. What bothered me the most though, wasn't the content of the note as much as the postscript. _Things may not be the same_... Other than Gio on his deathbed (probably from tripping over his own feet and breaking a leg), I couldn't think of anything different... Unless he/she was talking about that. Actually wait, no freakin way. Except for Co-chi, Giot and I, no one knew about that. I think. *__awkward laugh*_

_The leaves under my feet crunched. It was the middle of winter and the forest looked really sad (I'm really sorry, but that's the extend of my description abilities). After a few minutes more of sprinting at top speed, I saw the little wooden cottage from my "childhood" memories. The cottage from my memory was one of those happy, clean, and warm homes from someone else's life. Now it was almost completely the opposite: moss-covered and dusty windows. To finish it off, wild blackberry bush surrounded and covered the cabin, making it almost impossible to approach the cabin from any way other than the door, which had obviously been cleared recently. Smoke was coming out from over the house. Someone was definitely there. (Er, no duh)_

_Knowing the place too well to need to slow down the slightest bit, I barged in without knocking. This might annoy the crap out of some people, but since it's Giot, who really cares?_

"_Gio!" I said, a bit out of breath. "Why didn't you mail me earlier?! God dammit, were you born to be a pain in my side?" I stopped, noticing something out-of-place. Usually by now, I would've heard the annoying sigh from Giot or someone else in the room. I looked around at the tiny wooden bed with a raised eyebrow._

_Giot was propped up with a pile of pink and fluffy pillows. And they were LACEY, on top of all things. (Gimme a sec and lemme vomit, BLEEH) He looked, for some reason though, possibly alarmed. Seriously, like I haven't been doing that for the past, er, how many years? _

"_Excuse me but, do I know you?" Giot asked carefully._

_I froze, so it was that. Just like I doubted, the time has come. To cover up the part of me that wanted to scream, I tilted my head and smiled sweetly. Eww, I feel sick. "I am a very capable doctor sent by a friend of yours."_

"_Which friend?" Giot asked immediately._

_I smiled wider. "That, Gio, darling, is a secret. Anyways, idiot, what's with the pink lacey (I shuddered at that) pillows? Are they from some cute lady admirer?"_

_Giot reddened slightly as I pulled up my sleeves, getting ready to get to work. "My wife prepared these for me."_

"_And let you stay in an abandoned cabin deep inside the forest with only G__ here.__" I guessed __(or stated, if you like) __shrewdly. By the look of surprised on Giot's face, I had guessed right. "How thoughtful. So anyways, how are you feeling right now?" I cracked my knuckles loudly, this might scare the crap outta some people, but since it's Gio, it's fine_

"_Not very well," He admitted. "But for some reason, I feel very relaxed around you, almost like I know you very well."_

"_Super intuition." I waved off that statement lightly. I pulled out my necklace from underneath my casual jacket. That jacket I had to make by myself. (And everything else I was wearing, for that matter) Honestly, in this era everything's so formal... for me. Gio and crew always looked perfectly at ease in whatever, but not me. I shook my slightly too long sleeves back to reveal my ring. Nonchalantly, I touched my ring to my necklace and watched my silver flames surround my body as if in a greeting. They seemed to disappear but really, they were back somewhere inside me again. Giot was watching __interestedly__._

"_What? Interested?" I said, but I continued without giving him any time to answer. "So, yeah, even when I say that I'm a pretty capable healer, I can't __guarantee__ your recovery. (Unless I was actually at full power, but no thank youu~) Now is the last chance you have getting out of this. Do you want me to heal yah? Oh wait, I forgot your brain's in the kitchen." I paused and drew in a deep breath. "G! Get your ass out here for your boss cuz I don't think he owns a brain."_

"_Do not insult the Primo like that." Whoa, mindblown. No, seriously. That was the most G had ever said to me. He never says that much unless he was talking to Giot or making some kind of serious report. Boom right in the face man._

_I just looked at him, astonished for like, a whole minute. I was so shocked that I couldn't say anything. "Are you alright?" Giot finally asked, breaking both the silence and my lack of voice._

_I shook my head to clear my mind. "Yah, I'm fine. So, now that your brain has finally arrived, do you accept or not?" I stared Giot down. You'd better say yes, I thought, still staring the guy down. You'd better say yes._

"_I'll pass, thanks." I switched from my stare into a "you'd-better-change-your-mind-this-damn-moment-bu ddy-or-I-won't-exactly-__guarantee__-your-life glare". I'd found that this glare worked very well on Giot, and sure enough, he cringed slightly. Just slightly, but enough to be seen. _

"_Are you sure you should be refusing me here, Giot?" My hand found a rather old bottle of all-purp__medicine from deep inside my med-kit, and I started playing with it __consciously__. "Anyways, it's not like you need to do much. We just get G here to boil some fruit tea and bake some honey cakes for you like you're some royalty enjoying his afternoon tea or something. I just pour this little bottle of medicine in your tea and mix it a bit. All you have to do is drink the tea and get better."_

"_No, it's quite alright. I have no regrets, you see. And it's time for me to leave this to my __descendants__."_

_I dropped my fake smile. "G," I commanded coldly. "Go get a cup of water. Actually, no." I made G stop dead in his tracks. "We don't need the water. Although every patient of mine always complained about the taste of this medicine. I'm sure that Giotto, as Vongola Primo, should be able to handle it fine, no problem." I shot Giot a look, making him shut up before he could say anything else. "Mk, let's get rollin'."_

"_Why rolling?" Giot asked curiously. I raised an eyebrow. He shut his mouth immediately. I seemed to have that effect on people when I wanted._

_I transferred a large amount of my flames into the little bottle. That was also the reason why no one else could use my medicines or heal like me. One of the ingredients needed to make the thing work was a large amount of my flames (or a tiny bit, if I didn't like the patient) injected into the patient before he/she drinks the thing. For better results, I sometimes also add some flames directly in the bottle of stuff itself. Doesn't exactly help with the taste though. It _almost _worsens it. *Grins *_

_Stalking over to were Giot was half buried under pink lacey pillows, (*Vomit*) I held my hand out grudgingly toward the pillows. "Take my hand, idiot." I snapped when he looked at me, confused about what to do. Sheesh, if he didn't even remember this, then life was pretty sad for me. Does this mean that I actually have to find a job and work for money now. FML._

_Eww... Giot... "Guys and cooties." I muttered disgustedly under my breath. G seems to have heard since I saw a small movement from the corner of my eye. He's probably debating whether to kill me somewhere in that head of his."Now, get ready for this, Imma give you some of my flames so you won't (probably) die from the medicine." Silvery flames surrounded our hands and then __disappeared__. I dropped Giot's hand asap and wiped my hand on my shirt. Eww! Ugh! For this, Gio, I deserve a mountainful of cakes with extra frosting. You'd think that I'd get used to this after healing loads of people, sure, I'm used to it, doesn't mean I have to like it though._

_I picked up my little bottle of greenish brown medicine. Grinning sweetly. "Yosh, Vongola Primo-sama." I said very respectfully. (Guys, sarcasm!) "Drink this and we're done." I passed the bottle to Giot and waited. He uncorked it like a child trying out new candy. Of course, he was only like this in front of G, Co-chi, Asa__-chi__, and I. With almost everyone else (I might have missed someone in my list, I think I did) he was the responsible (depends on how you understand the word "responsible") leader of the Vongola._

_Nonchalantly, he gulped a very large mouthful down, and choked. I could see that the medicine that I spent so much work on (not) was about to end up all over the bed, so I said quickly. "Now, Giot, that won't do now, would it? You have to drink all of it." (Actually, you don't, but revenge, well, is revenge)_

_He actually managed to swallow it without fainting. Some people fainted even with sugar, tea and everything else. And nearly everyone fainted when they tried to swallow that much in one go, usually cuz they don't believe me about how bad it actually tastes. Do I make it like that on purpose? Yah._

"_One more mouthful and you're done!" I said cheerfully. Maybe I am a sadist._

_Giot's face now was extremely pale, almost like he'd seen a ghost._

"_Ehh?" I pouted. God, ew, I haven't acted girly since I last had the chance/time/energy to tease Giot like this. "This won't do..." I took the bottle from Gio's hand and forced him down against the pink lacey pillows. "G. Help me force the guy's mouth open." I could see that G was reluctant to do so, so I added. "If you don't want him to die, that is." That motivated G very well. He strode over and pulled Giots mouth open so wide that even I felt sad for Giot, who was making kinda weird noises (that were kinda disturbing), which, I supposed, were the best he could manage at the moment. "Er, G? You don't have to make Gio's mouth open quite so wide, in fact, it's actually pretty scary." When Giot no longer looked in too much pain but still squirming from the prospect of more of the medicine, I poured the rest of the medicine down Giot's throat. Poor guy. Mk, revenge time over._

_When Giot no longer looked in too much danger of throwing up. (This is after five whole cups of cold water, at least) I was leaning on a wall, bored. Frankly, I was surprised that the wall could hold my weight. But merp, I was light. "So, how you feel now?"_

"_Other than the fact that I feel like throwing up," he said, surprised. "I feel fine now."_

"_As you should." I said proudly. If I put my mind to it, (IF) I can cure 99.99% of diseases. I shut my med-kit with a click and stuffed it into my duffel bag. "Mk~ I'm going now."_

"_Um, thank you." Giot said. Is he lame or what? "And once again, who is that friend of mine that sent you? I want to thank them for __recommending__ me such a good healer."_

_A buzzer went off in my brain: Flattery. If I was a cat, I would've flattened my ears. Instead, I simply narrowed my eyes. "That friend of yours is someone there's no way you'd remember. Her name is... God dammit, Giot, figure it out yourself." And with that, I left with a flourish. Jeez, I never knew that I was into the dramatic type of stuff._

* * *

_I had shocked myself by actually turning up to their funeral. The person talking right now was spouting absolute non-sense. "Great intelligence" and "Kindness" were not the words I would've chose to describe my crew. Let's see... Giot: idiot, asshole, etc. G: overly quiet, too serious, good for LOL's. Asa-chi: so chill! Boxer guy (I know his name! Sheesh! This is what I call him, he don't have a prob with it, I don't see why you should): religious... Lam-chi: even better for LOL's than G. Alaude-chi: too cool for his own good. He also needs to shut up once in a while. (SARCASM!) Daemon...: the assbitch of Vongola. And no, that description is NOT too harsh for him. Hmph. Overall, we were a group of idiots. And of course, that includes me._

_So apparently, after sitting through an idiot making a speech, I had to give something to crew as a "present/tribute". Absolute robbery man. Who do you think cooked for them the... what? last several decades? ME! And now I have to give them presents cuz they're dead? No thank you._

_The man sitting beside me got up, and the guy to the other side told me to hurry up when my row started moving towards the front cuz I was still sitting. Bad luck made me sit right in the middle of a damned row, so I stood up and started walking towards the front. Jeez, what did they want me to give them? A plate of choco-chip cookies? I doubted that they'd need any now, though._

"_Do I absolutely have to give something?" I asked the person in charge at the front._

"_Ye- Yes, Ma'm." he stuttered._

_Jeez, I really don't know what to do now. The people behind me were looking around at what was taking so long. Let's see, I have Sora-kun and Daichi-kun on me, no way I'm giving them up. Vongola ring, I totally would but that would attract way too much attention. Clocket... same problem as Vongola ring. A buncha weapons, the people in charge here probably wouldn't be too happy at me throwing knifes here. I was pretty much in despair when I thought of an absolutely brilliant idea._

_I flicked the cover of my kunai/shuriken pack up and grabbed a kunai swiftly. Then I reached up and grabbed a bunch of my hair. People were peering around, curious at what I was about to do. Then, with my other hand, I chopped off my formerly ankle length turquoise hair, making it a crudely cut bob head with random piles of still long hair. (Gee, I wonder if crew would've like aqua better... Anyways, they'd better be happy, people have killed over that bunch o' hair. And do they know just how much time this is gonna take me to fix my hair now?! ARGH!) I threw that among the pile of random stuff and walked away happily (I'm amazing at changing emotion high speed). Well, that's one thing done with. :D_

* * *

_Mk, death-day anniversaries. Do people even celebrate that? Key word here is celebrate. Well? Do they? I mean like, what are you supposed to celebrate about? They're dead! But anyways, here I am, crouching over my crew's graves. Why am I here? For the past... how many years? I've never been here. And, well, jeez, surprisingly enough, Alaude-chi's grave was also here... MINDBLOWN! Just mindblown. Well, I'm not exactly sure, but I think that people usually "talk" to the dead people when they're here. Errr... well, here starts._

_I hopped while crouching over to Lam-chi's grave. "Kayyy... Lampo... you're a... well, spoiled brat. But what can I say? I'm _sure _we had a lot of good memories together. Just like best friends should! Right?" Maybe I should be less sarcastic. Nope, rejected. If I'm here, you take me full on with sarcasm._

_Next is boxing guy. "Merp... I think I would've like yah better if you went on less about religions cuz I'm atheius. But, well... everyone has their own thing... Right?" This is actually getting really lame... Maybe I should stop..._

_Alaude-chi... I think I'll skip him. I mean like, I like my hands right where they are. (So I'm continuing, huh.)_

_WAIT! Couldn't I have just called their "spirit" thingy from the Vongola Rings? I turned around. "Gio-" Rigghtt... I forgot, the second (or was it the third? Fourth maybe?) generation of Vongolas have them right now. FML. Tch. Let's continue with this weird thing that I'm doing in the middle of the night. *Yawn*_

_Daemon... I let out a long string of swear words. Words that would've made everyone in my crew grab me and have the time of their lives trying to calm me down. "You ******* ************." and many others, all while jumping up and down on his damned grave, not like he's there anyways, but it's something to do._

_Asa-chi next. "You're awesome, dude." That's the only thing that Asa-chi deserves. He's so chill that it's funny. He's, he's just awesome. _

_G. I tilted my head, thinking of insults automatically. Hanging out with Giot too often can do that do you. The first thing you end up thinking of when you're trying to describe something, anything, ends up being strings of insults. "No comment." I decided. I mean, sheesh, the guy's like mute (to me only, with everyone else, he's, like, perfectly normal, but not me). You have a mouth! Use it!_

_Giot. My face fell immediately. "Let's see Gio." I immediately started using a sweet, sugary voice. "You're an idiot, reeeaally bad with girls. Can't cook one bit. Burns yourself while boiling water. Sounds like nails on chalkboard. (I tend to have a different opinion on guys than other people) Has no sense of fashion. Has cooties. Too polite. Drags me along while "exploring" a city that we've "explored" a thousand times already. TONE DEAF! Extremely close to having zero IQ. (I think I'm getting overboard here...) Jeez, I can go on like this for hours. "But you're my friend, idiot, and I can't believe that I actually said something as cheesy as that."_

_I backed up and started digging with my hands. Sadly, I was highly __accomplished__ at digging with my hands. Hanging out with guys the most of my life made me extremely capable of these things. The next time I looked down, I was looking at a simple wooden coffin. I put my hand on top of it. The coffin was cold, as it should be. There's probably only a skeleton left in there now. Giot... I hadn't realized just how much I missed you and the rest of the crew. (The rest of the crew more than you, Giot :D)_

"_So, Giot. One last favor for me, alright? Help me keep my stuff for a while... Until I come back to get it, that is." I yanked off my aquamarine necklace with my free hand and dropped it on his grave. My Vongola Ring, aquamarine ring and my clocket also joined my necklace shortly. I smile-sighed at both my stuff and Giot, or what was left of him, anyway. "Thanks, budday."_

* * *

Right... That's where I stored my stuff. Maybe I do have short-term memory. Jeez, I feel really stupid now. Tch. Mk~ I guess I'm heading towards a graveyard in the middle of the night again. FML.


	5. Vongola Rings

"Higher, higher!" I heard from out the window. Ie-chi, seriously, shut the hell up. I could've gotten way more sleep if he shut up. Sigh. FML.

I half dragged myself/rolled down the stairs and into the living room. Tsu-chi and the others were watching/ messing up/helping with Mama with the laundry.

"Geez, why are you all so excited this early?" Tsu-chi complained to Ie-chi.

"Well," Ie-chi replied seamlessly. "I haven't been home for so long so I thought I'd spend some time with the family." How cliche... "Our family grew so a lot while I was gone, didn't it?."

_How to put it... _I heard Tsu-chi say in his head. It's always funner (it's a word now) to add Tsu-chi's thoughts to my circle. _Are they family, or are they parasites? _True dat. Maybe I should pay rent... Wait. What was I saying? Errr... Meh, I forgot. Maybe I really _do_ have short-term memory.

"Tsunaaaa." Ie-chi said while half crying/tearing up. Um, hardcore tearing up. "You've been asleep the whoole time Daddy's been home... My heart was broken. I thought you didn't want to be with me anymore..." I snickered.

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO WAS ASLEEP THE WHOLE TIME YESTERDAY, WEREN'T YOU?!" Tsu-chi yelled, forcing his dad back a bit. And then: _Of course I don't want to be with him. He isn't cool at all and embarassing too. _Well, don't you guys take after Giotto. He'd be be proud to know that he has such cool (*hem hem*) descendents.

"And! Well? How is it? How is it?" Ie-chi said suddenly, leaning towards his son. "How's school?"

_Changing subjects so suddenly? _Tsu-chi thought, backing up, avoiding contact with his dad.

"Arithmetic, is it? Pretty laughable, huh?" Ie-chi said. I leaned against the wall behind those two. Free comedy drama right there!

_He's trying to force a conversation. _Not quite, Tsu-chi. That's just how your dad is. _And it's not exactly right. It's not arithmetics. It's mathematics. Mathematics! _...True dat. Tsu-chi, you make me so proud. You actually know your subjects! (LOL, kidding~) "It's not really something I can laugh about." You bet, buddy.

"I see, I see." Ie-chi said carefreely. Are you even listening to your kid? "I took a lot of notes during the time I was out to share my experiences with you." I doubt he wants to hear them though, Ie-chi. He pulled out a battered notebook from somewhere. "I'll start reading now."

"Eh?" Tsu-chi cut in quickly. Smart choice, bud. "Th-that's fine! You don't have to read it!"

"Oh," Ie-chi said, somewhat dejectedly.

_A life like that won't be a good example anyway. _Depends on which life you're talking about.

"Mama! Snack time!" Lambo said. Did he even do anything other than run around with a pair of boxers over his head?

"Lambo! Hurry up and help!" I-Pin said. So he didn't.

Ie-chi sighed and leaned back. "You've grown a lot in the two years I've been gone, Tsuna."

"Eh?"

"Especially since you have a cute little girlfriend like that." He grinned.

"Huh?" Is that all you say?

"And two of them! You're pretty sly, aren't you?"

"Wh-what are you saying? Wait, two?" So in your eye, Tsu-chi, Haru either isn't a girl (SHE'S A DAMNED ALIEN, well... from the information I'd gotten on her, at least...), or a friend to you, is that right? You've inherited that part from Giotto too, haven't you.

"Don't get shy on me now." This really _is_ a free drama, ain't it? "You're starting to get into romance, aren't you Tsuna?" He thumped Tsu-chi hard on the back. Ouch, that looked like it hurt. A chain slipped through the top of his pajamas, with the Vongola Ring hanging off it. I raised an eyebrow. That was not exactly unexpected though. Now, for Tsu-chi's reactions. I looked up expectantly.

"AHHH! THIS RING! THOSE SCARY—" His eyes went wide as he started screaming.

"That's a pendant, isn't it?" Ie-chi cut in as Tsu-chi went stonified, still holding the ring in two fingers. "I guess you would be interested in stuff like that when you get a girlfriend. (PLURAL!) Well," he continued, stroking his beard. "They're both pretty cute, (I mimed vomiting to the side) want me to guess who you like more?" As Tsu-chi doesn't think (or know) that Haru's a girl, I'm guessing that Kyoko won the competition.

"I've got other things to worry about!" Tsu-chi said as he turned and ran right past me, gasping for air. Is he out of shape, or what?

I walked over to the cupboard that I always keep filled and pulled out a pack of mint Oreos. I stuffed that in my currently empty messenger bag. In went also a jar of coco cookies, a full sized strawberry shortcake, and a piece of blueberry pie. (I brought/made them all! Sheesh) Hopefully they won't get squished. Then I went to wait for Tsu-chi at the front of the house. I hopped on my airboard and started it up.

"Hey Tsuna!" I heard Ie-chi say. "What's going on? You looked kinda troubled." He walked out after Tsu-chi, pretending not to notice me. "If you've got any problems, just tell your Daddy." He grinned, showing his teeth. Holy crap, that's scary.

Tsu-chi waved him off. REJECTED! "It's fine! I'm going." He started running and I floated behind him slowly. _There's no point in telling Dad about the Mafia. _You don't know how wrong, and how right, you are there, Tsu-chi.

* * *

Tsu-chi pushed the door leading into the hospital hesistantly. "Dino-san...? Are you here?"

I pushed him aside and strode into the hospital like I owned it, pulling Tsu-chi behind me and shutting the door/slide-ish thing behind me with a crack. To my great disappointment, Go-chi and Ta-chi were waiting there.

"Juudaime!"

"Yo, Tsuna!"

Tsu-chi walked up to them while I stayed behind. "Gokudera-kun! Yamamoto! Why are you guys here?"

"Chiavarone told us." About...? Can you finish your sentence or not, Go-chi? Then he saw me standing behind Tsu-chi. He stalked up to me and grabbed the front of my shirt. "Why did you not protect Juudaime yesterday?!" He demaded. "If you were there we might've had more of a chance." Sure, if I could anything. I didn't say anything though, let the idiot figure it out himself.

"Gokudera-kun!" Tsu-chi stepped in. "Yuki has her reasons!" Merp. Maybe I shouldn't've told him about my position last night when he came to ask me; I don't want a kid standing up for me.

"Oh," Ta-chi interrupted. "Something weird happened this morning!" He reached in his pocket.

"That's right!" Go-chi joined in. Guess good mood is contagious, too.

"I went to get the paper this morning, and this was in my mailbox." He flashed the Rain Ring.

"Same here." Go-chi in turn flashed the Storm Ring. Funny, he might look just like G, but his personality is on the other end of the scale. "I thought it might have something to do with the guy from yesterday."

Tsu-chi, for his part, totally spazzed out. "AHHHH! THOSE RINGS CAN'T BE!"

"Do you know what these are, Tsuna?" Ta-chi asked.

"They're dangerous! They'll come after us if we have them!

"I see." Or do you, Ta-chi?

"So you have one too!" Go-chi said, his eyes sparkling.

"But why did they go to you two?" Tsu-chi said, worried.

"Because they were also chosen." Di-chi answered. I looked over at him.

"Dino-san! Reborn too!" I zoned out at that moment. Ba-chi... Are you alright? I sprinted my way upstairs and started to scan the name thingys. Ba-chi, Ba-chi, Ba-chi. Here! It was labeled "PRIVATE: DO NOT ENTER", but that was what gave it away. There's no way the Mafia would let their names be displayed for the public to see. I barged in without knocking- there's no need. There I found Ba-chi sleeping, with a buncha wires and stuff attached. I got started at once.

I touched my ring to my necklace automatically after I rolled up my sleeves. Silver flames surrounded me for just a moment before disappearing. I approached Ba-chi's bed carefully. The kid was sucha cutie when he was little. He's like a version of Fuuta that only wears suits informally.

I focused all my energy towards my right palm. It started glowing a faint metallic colour after a few seconds. I put that palm over Ba-chi's stomach. The slight glowing spread out immediately. I could feel the wounds knitting themselves back together slowly. When I could no longer feel anymore wounds, I cut off my flow of energy. He should be alright in about a day or two. And well, well, well, I haven't done that in a while. I could, surprisingly, still do it.

From my bag I took out the food that I had stuffed in there a few minutes ago. Then I set them on a dresser beside Ba-chi's bed. He should know who put them there, after all, no one ever gives him that much food in one go except for me.

I re-entered the main room. Tsu-chi, Di-chi, Re-chi, Go-chi and Ta-chi were still all gathered there.

"What's with the 'Rain' and 'Storm' parts?" Tsu-chi was asking. "This isn't a weather report." Damn right it ain't.

"The first Vongola Family had a variety of unique members." Re-chi explained. Unique... huh? That's a way of putting it... "Their traits helped shape the rings. The first boss was said to be like the sky, colorful and open to all things." Gimme a sec to barf. *Bleeehhh* "So his ring was the Sky Ring. And the other rings were named after various kinds of weather that color the sky." Suurre~ Pretty good explaination there, Re-chi. "The merciful shower that washes all away, the Rain Ring. The turbulent gale that fiercely blows, the Storm Ring. (Describes Go-chi perfectly... But G? Err... sure...) The drifting cloud that is never trapped by anyone and walks its own path, the Cloud Ring. (Who else but Hibari? *I hate crowds*) The illusion that prohibits knowledge of its true nature, the Mist RIng. (I did a inner flip off to Daemon. F*** YOU! Ugh!) The orb of fire that brightens the great sky, the Sun Ring. The thunderbolt that strikes a zealous blow, the Lightning Ring. But with the Rings you have right now-"

"STOP! STOP!" Tsu-chi interupted in accented English. Technically, he said "STOPPU! STOPPU!" but you understand what he's trying to say, right?

"What?"

"Look, I just don't want mine!" Me either! Finally, someone who understands me! "Everyone else here too, right? Right?'

"Yeah, sorry, I play baseball, so I can't wear rings." Ta-chi said. Good excuse there, I'll record that for future references. "I don't really understand all this."

Tsu-chi looked really happy at this. "Right? Right! He means it's big trouble to hold onto these! (You're going down the wrong path if you don't want them to have the rings, budday) That long-haired guy from yesterday is gonna come after us!" Bull's eye.

Ta-chi and Go-chi frowned/narrowed their eyes slightly at this. "He's coming?" Ta-chi asked for confirmation.

"Mm! Mm! Dangerous, isn't it? Within ten days, if things go badly!"

"Ten days, huh?" Ta-chi considered.

"Arre? Wh-what's wrong?"

Ta-chi tightened his grip on the ring. Then he threw it in the air and caught it in his palm easily. "This is mine, right? I'll hang onto it!"

"Arre?"

"I don't think I can stick with being the loser!" With that, he ran out of the hospital.

"Ya-Yamamoto!" Stop stuttering! Sheesh!

Go-chi started running as well. As he passed Tsu-chi, he said, "In ten days, I'll be reborn as a man who won't put this ring to shame!" He then left Tsu-chi big-eyed.

"Wai- Gokudera-kun too?" Tsu-chi started towards the entrance. "Wh-why?!"

Di-chi walked up to Tsu-chi, who was still in shock. "Good job, Tsuna. Thanks to your words, Gokudera and Yamamoto are ready and willing to train." Heck yeah they are!

With that realization, Tsu-chi started messing up his hair in frustration. "That's not what I intended! This isn't a joking matter!"

"Don't become so optimistic yet." Re-chi cut in. Aren't you being soo optimistic? Or is the word pessimistic?

"What are you doing?!" Tsu-chi said. Re-chi was stripping down to his boxers and folding his clothes up neatly. I wouldve just left it in a pile, but... yeah...

"I need to train the other four guardians over the next ten days or we won't stand a chance." He then added his hat to the pile. Le-chi sat to the side quietly, watching. Then he stood up and adjusted his red boxers.

"Who are the other four?" Tsu-chi asked. Shouldn't it be obvious? Especially after Re-chi's explaination and description of each of the rings?

"You know them all very well." Suurre... Wait, I just realized, I haven't said anything in so long. I'm gonna end up losing my voice soon. Re-chi pulled on an elephant hat. Very atttractive, Re-chi. "And just so you know, the man with the Sun Ring will be here soon."

"Huh? The Sun Ring?" Tsu-chi asked.

"OK." Re-chi said, standing up, all dressed up in hat, boxers, and boxing gloves.

"That outfit— It couldn't be!" And that was when Ryo-chi burst in the front door.

"PAO PAO ELDER!" Tsu-chi turned around with a "ehh?". Ryo-chi entered enthusiastically, the Sun Ring on his left middle finger.

"Kyoko-chan's big brother?!" Is it really _that_ surprising?

"Hey, Sawada! Are you going through training too? I can't wait!"

"Wait a minute please! Do you understand what's going on?" Tsu-chi said heatedly.

"Striking down the enemy when they come, right?" He raised his fists. "Looks like the tension is high! I've heard about everything that happened yesterday, what's gonna happen in ten days and the Rings too."

"Arre? Then you understand-"

"I FORGOT IT ALL THOUGH!" Ryo-chi said, he didn't look ashamed or sad, like at all.

_Instantaneously pointless. _Tsu-chi thought off to the side. I burst out laughing. He then turned to Re-chi. "Why him of all people?! You'll worry Kyoko-chan, right?" Is that all you ever think about? I felt my eyebrow twitch slightly.

"But he has a very important role within the family." Re-chi said remorselessly.

"Eh?" Tsu-chi turned back to Ryo-chi. "Important role?"

"LEAVE IT TO ME TO THE EXTREME!" Ryo-chi said with two fists in the air, shining brightly.

_He certainly is sunny. _Tsu-chi thought darkly. _You've got very bad intuition, onii-san._

"By the way, Pao Pao Elder, you said you called your childhood friend for me today?" Ryo-chi asked suddenly.

"Eh?" Tsu-chi asked. "Childhood friend?"

Re-chi's pacifier started glowing. "More like a bad relation I can't cut off." Re-chi said. What a way to describe a fellow Arcobaleno! Like I care. "Here he comes."

"Your pacifier's glowing! That means... Arcobaleno..." Tsu-chi didn't finish his thought. It might be too freaky to be finished...

"It's been a while, kora!" Co-chi start from above Tsu-chi.

"Colonello!"

This earned him a kick in the face. "You're looking well, kora!"

_Spartan from the beginning?! _"Why is Colonello here?" Tsu-chi asked, holding his poor cheek. It was bright pink and looked like it hurt. Ouch.

"Re-chi came crying to me, so..." Co-chi landed beside Re-chi.

"I didn't cry." Re-chi shot back.

Co-chi hit his forehead against Re-chi's with a THUMP. "Cry like you mean it, kora!"

Re-chi returned the hit. "Who's gonna?"

"Kora!" And it continues... I considered saying "LA-CHI!" really loud just to see Co-chi's reaction, but that's a bit too harsh even for me.

"Don't do that!" Tsu-chi tried to play the peace-maker, still holding his cheek, which already looked better. "Explain everything clearly! What's going on?"

Re-chi and Co-chi finally looked up with smoking foreheads. (When did Le-chi turn into an elephant? He looks pretty cute. Well... for a green elephant, that is...) "We don't have enough time for me to train everyone this time."

"So, we're going to be exclusive home tutors, kora!" Co-chi continued.

"For each person with a Ring." Re-chi finished.

"Home tutors?" Tsu-chi asked.

"Who's the boxer-brat you told me about, kora?" Co-chi asked, looking around for Ryo-chi. Is it really _that _hard?

"That's me!" Ryo-chi said.

Co-chi walked up to him, "Let's see." And with that, he started poking Ryo-chi around with his rifle. I would've called that violation. "Is he really that weak, kora?"

"Yeah," Re-chi replied. "Out of the chosen family, he's the weakest."

Co-chi actually _laughed_. Do you understand how scary that is?! "You've found an interesting guy, kora!" He turned to Ryo-chi. "If you can keep up with my training for ten days, you'll be way stronger than the others six, kora! But it's going to be tough. Do you accept, kora?" He held out a headband with "02" on it, matching Co-chi's own.

Ryo-chi took the headband and tied it around his forehead. "OF COURSE! I WILL NOT LOSE TO THE EXTREME!"

"Then follow me, kora!" Co-chi was picked up by his bird and Ryo-chi followed, running behind him.

"Are those two going to be all right?" Tsu-chi asked.

"Don't worry," Re-chi replied. "Colonello's taken care of thousands of students. And Ryohei made him excited. If things go well, (IF) he'll come back several times stronger.

"Then I'm going to train as well." Di-chi said, starting to head out.

"You're going to be a home tutor too?" Tsu-chi said, surprised. "Aren't you going to fight with us?"

Di-chi turned back to Tsu-chi, looking sorry/sad. "Sorry, Tsuna, because of the alliance's position, I can't do a thing."

"No way!" Tsu-chi said, clutching his head. "And I was counting on you!"

"Sorry, Tsuna. This is all I can do for you right now."

"So are you going to train Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto?" Tsu-chi asked, confused.

"Nope," Di-chi answered. "I've got some other problem child."

"Don't worry." Re-chi cut in. "Gokudera and Yamamoto will find perfect tutors themselves."

We walked out of the hospital and said bye to Di-chi. Di-chi and Hibari... What can I say? Puuuuurfect combo. Have fun guys~

"Hibari has a ring too." Re-chi told Tsu-chi. I was riding my airboard like a horse just behind them

"You gave Hibari-san a ring too?!" I thiiink he just said that... not really, but, well, yeah... close enough. "That persons hates crowds, there's no way he would join us!"

"That's why he's perfect to be the Guardian of Cloud." Re-chi said. "But you don't exactly have time to be worrying about others." A glance at Re-chi told me that he was fully equiped with an abnormal number of Dying Will Bullets. Poor Tsu-chi.

It seems like Tsu-chi had arrived at the same conclusion as me. "Those... Are they all Dying Will Bullets?! Wait! I never agreed to—" Whatever he wanted to say was cut off by Re-chi's shooting of the bullet. He fell backwards and then jumped back up... in his boxers. "I WILL TRAIN WITH MY DYING WILL!" Ow, my eardrums. Then he sprinted off to God knows where... I don't know, and I don't care... But I suppose I have to follow him. Siigh... I shot after him, still horse-riding my airboard. I hope I don't fall off. But if I do... Meh.


End file.
